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Re: The Injury Update Thread 2012

Some updates, mostly on minor leaguers:

Jose Campos
Sidelined with an elbow injury through much of the season, it currently looks as if Campos will not follow Manny Banuelos onto the operating table. No surgery is scheduled for Campos, and he’s currently throwing off a mound, expected to be ready for spring training.

After coming over from Seattle in the Jesus Montero trade, Campos made just five starts for Low-A Charleston this year, and he’ll likely return to Charleston next season. Newman said he still needs to “complete” that part of his development.

Cesar Cabral
The Rule 5 lefty who was shut down late in spring training because of a fracture in his elbow, Cabral is throwing of flat ground at “extended distances,” according to Newman.

The Yankees plan to keep Cabral on their roster throughout the winter in hopes that he can show the same promise he showed last spring, when he might have beaten Clay Rapada for a big league job. That said, Newman indicated that it’s not entirely certain that Cabral will be fully cleared in time for spring training.

Michael Pineda
Seems like we get Pineda updates every once in a while, and this one is no big surprise. He’s basically doing the exact same thing Cabral is doing: Throwing off flat ground from long distances. Newman said both Cabral and Pineda are on basically the same plan at this point.

“We’re thinking May on these guys,” Newman said.

Previous indications have been that Pineda won’t be ready until closer to June, which makes sense. If he’s ready to pitch sometime in May, he’ll have to get stretched out into June.

Mason Williams
The Yankees top prospect according to Baseball America hyper-extended his non-throwing shoulder while making a diving play last season. He was 83 at-bats into a promotion to High-A Tampa and had to shut down for the rest of the season. Now he’s getting back into baseball gear at the Yankees minor league complex.

“He’s swinging the bat,” Newman said.

The Yankees never seemed especially concerned about Williams’ injury, but it’s clearly good news that he seems to be progressing as expected.

Rivera said that his rehab is continuing on a near-daily basis and that he expects to resume throwing in about a week. He expects a "normal" Spring Training -- which, for him, likely means a slightly late report to Yankees camp in Tampa, Fla. -- but said his knee will be ready for any save opportunities come Opening Day.

"It needs more strengthening. The five percent will come quick," Rivera promised.

Re: The Injury Update Thread 2012

Jeter said to be "doing well" in rehab and will be ready for Opening Day:

Though he has yet to run on his surgically repaired left ankle, Derek Jeter is “doing well” in his rehab, according to Brian Cashman, and remains on target for Opening Day.

Jeter, who no longer wears a protective boot on the ankle, has begun walking and jogging on an underwater treadmill at the club’s Tampa complex. “He’s not running yet; the last thing he’ll do is run,” Cashman said Monday.

Sometime later this month, he’ll “get on the field doing baseball stuff,” Cashman said. “He’s not there yet, but he’s doing well.”

Does that mean fixing this problem will bring Rodriguez back to his old self?
Depends on a lot of factors, including Rodriguez’s ability to rehab, regain strength and teach his muscles to work with this new range of motion (which should be better than it’s ever been). It also depends on Rodriguez’s cartilage. It will have been damaged by the repeated abuse, and Dr. Kelly won’t have a perfect sense of that damage until he actually cuts into Rodriguez’s hip on the day of surgery. Early exams, though, were promising.

“The imaging study shows that he has some cartilage wear that makes me think we will be able to get him back to his pre-injury level of play, that it’s not so extensive that it will ultimately impact his ability to play,” Dr. Kelly said. “Unfortunately, our imaging doesn’t give us all the information, and that’s something we’re going to know at the time of surgery.”

Are you certain this isn’t because of performance enhancing drugs?
The short answer is, once again, yes.

“This is a developmental, genetic predisposition to a certain shape of the hip joint that occurs during the first 15 years of development,” Dr. Kelly said. “This is not related to steroid use. Steroids don’t change the shape of your hip joint. This is a very well known developmental phenomenon.”

Re: The Injury Update Thread 2012

Dr. Kelly is actually going to make Rodriguez’s hip able to do things it couldn’t do originally. By reshaping the hip bone, doctors will actually add range of motion that didn’t exist when the bone was misshapen.

“When we improve that motion arc, we help the joint in terms of providing clearance, but there’s an accommodation phase that has to occur for the muscles to allow them to become reeducated to this new motion arc,” Dr. Kelly said. “Fortunately, muscles have a degree of compliance that allows them to stretch and be flexible, and it happens over time. … We’re literally trying to increase range of motion, so this requires a tremendous amount of muscle reeducation post-operative, that is very different from traditional rehab, and in that respect, the rehab component of this is really critical.”

Dr. Kelly outlined a rehab schedule that includes roughly six weeks of healing, followed by an “early strengthening phase.” It’s not until three months after surgery that Rodriguez can begin his true strengthening phase, and it’s only after he builds strength that he can begin to build endurance. After he builds endurance, Rodriguez can begin what Dr. Kelly calls, “the coordination phase… (which is) the functional return to the sport.”

Re: The Injury Update Thread 2012

Originally Posted by Bub

Probably could use a 2013 thread....with spring training just around the corner I'm sure we're in for a bunch of unexpected injuries right off the bat.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof ... I think we should wait until pitchers and catchers report. It's still approximately 32 days, 22 hours and 7 minutes off. Not that I'm counting or anything.

Re: The Injury Update Thread 2012

Derek Jeter walked up and down the red carpet Wednesday evening with no visible limp, saying his surgically repaired left ankle won't hold him back from beginning baseball activities at the same point he would any other offseason.

Speaking to reporters at the launch party for the 10th Annual Derek Jeter Celebrity Golf Classic at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Jeter said he has been cleared to start baseball activities but won't do so until later this month. He took the non-weight-bearing cast off his left foot "right after Christmas" and has been walking on an underwater treadmill at the team's Minor League complex.

"I got the OK to start baseball activities, but I don't start 'til next week or the week after anyway," Jeter said. "In terms of baseball activities, I'm right where I need to be."

Those baseball activities will include hitting and fielding, but Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Saturday that Jeter won't be cleared to run "until the very back end of this." Asked whether he would be ready to start come Opening Day considering those limitations early in Spring Training, Jeter responded, "Why not?

"I've always said [I'll be ready], for a long time. I told you it's fine now."

Re: The Injury Update Thread 2012

Wednesday's procedure involved making three small incisions in Rodriguez's hip and inserting a camera to assess the damage before reattaching the torn labrum and shaving the femoral head into a rounder shape, providing a greater range of motion.